Month: April 2010

Climate change trust fund money not delayed, says surprised EU

The European Union has claimed that funds allocated to the Maldives by the EU for climate change adaptation earlier this month have not been delayed, following reports in newspaper Miadhu Daily.

Miadhu reported that the Vice President, Dr Mohamed Waheed, requested the €6.5 million from the EU directly without going through the proper channels of communication, slowing the process.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 6 April between the Maldivian government, the EU and the World Bank. The money will be allocated to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation programmes, which are to be proposed by the government and managed by the World Bank.

Vice President Waheed said the allegations are “part of a smear campaign. It’s come after I spoke out the other day. So it has no basis whatsoever.”

Dr Waheed said the time schedule for the utilisation of the funds, which states that all projects must be submitted by 15 January 2011, shows “we are perfectly on schedule.”

He said he doesn’t “really understand where this is coming from, but I believe it’s a political stunt, played by someone in this country to basically discredit me. You can ask the EU representative in Sri Lanka.”

The Delegation of the EU to Sri Lanka and the Maldives stated today that “the delegation is pleased to confirm that the EU has contributed EUR 6.5 million (approximately US$8.8 million) to the multi-donor Maldives Climate Change Trust Fund.”

They noted arrangements for the programme include a Climate Change Advisory Council, of which Vice President Waheed is the chair, which will “provide strategic direction to the climate change activities under the Trust Fund ensuring that activities are aligned with the government’s Strategic Action Plan and climate change priorities.”

There will also be a Technical Committee composed of technical experts of the government, private sector and leading civil society organisations. This second committee will be responsible for “reviewing and recommending technically well-sound project proposals for financing and monitoring the overall progress of the programme.”

Programme Manager for the trust fund at the EU’s High Commission to the Maldives and Sri Lanka in Colombo, Harshini Halangote, told Minivan News “we have already committed this money” and assured the trust fund has been made available to the government.

“The government is solely responsible for proposing to the World Bank on the government’s priorities,” she said, noting the money is “solely for climate change purposes.”

She said the government’s proposals will then be looked into by the World Bank and the EU for approval.

Halangote added the Vice President would “not request for it personally,” noting there is a governance structure which has been passed and looked at by the government which outlines the proper channels of communication.

“Minister of Finance Ali Hashim, who signed the MoU, is aware they do have the money,” she said.

Halangote added “the project can run as fast as they want it to,” and said there was no truth in the allegations that the funds had been delayed.

Delhi-based Environmental Specialist for the trust fund, Priti Kumar, said “there has been no delay. When the World Bank starts a long-term project like this, you can’t expect a trust fund to be allocated within 21 days [since the signing of the MoU].”

She said the EU and World Bank “want the money to be utilised in a very useful manner” which is not influenced by politics.

She noted the Climate Change Advisory Council “is working quite well” and projects are being developed already.

She added although “everything is on track,” it will take “a few months for everything to be streamlined” as the trust fund involves a large sum of money.

Deputy Minister for Environment, Dr Mohamed Shareef, said the money “is available” and the ministry has “proposed several projects.”

He said the money “had been delayed for a bit, but international bureaucracy also takes its time.”

Dr Shareef said the ministry hopes there will be some projects starting by the end of this year and said he had been told “there will be more funds available” in addition to the original €6.5 million.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Ahmed Assad, said he is “not aware of any [delays]” and has not been “informed of any issues” regarding the trust fund.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Naseem, told Minivan News yesterday that the funds had been “delayed for too long,” but today said he no longer wished to give details on the matter.

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MPs vote against referring to Supreme Court on provinces issue

Yesterday MPs rejected the resolution presented by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to refer to the Supreme Court on the controversial provinces issue.

35 MPs voted for the resolution while 38 MPs voted against the resolution.

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party Vice President and MP Ali Waheed said that he doubted the accuracy of the resolution, claiming that it was presented “to mislead the people.”

”MP Ahmed Sameer (who presented the resolution) has told so many lies standing near the podium,” Waheed said. ”Maybe he wanted to make a record for the first ever issue taken to the Supreme Court.”

The provinces section was removed from the decentralisation bill on the vote of the DRP, Dhivehi Qaumy Party (DQP), Peoples Alliance (PA), Jumhoory Party and several Independent MPs.

”I never knew that people voted to divide the country into seven provinces,” he said.

Waheed said even if the issue was taken to the Supreme Court, they were also unable to divide the country.

”It can only be done by the vote of 77 MPs,” he said.

Independent MP Ibrahim Muthalib said he was concerned that if the issue was taken to the Supreme Court, it would set a precedent and many decisions would be made by the Supreme Court.

”We are losing our dignity on our own,” he said.

MDP MP Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed said that the issue was not a constitutional issue, and was rather a political issue.

”Dividing the country into provinces were in both the MDP and DRP manifestos,” Nasheed said. ”To fulfill the pledges of MDP, it’s one path we have to go down.”

He said that it would be more beneficial if there were seven ‘Males’, instead of one.

”What is really going on is that some DRP MPs and vice presidents had told me that if the issue was taken to the Supreme Court, it would rule that it is lawful,” he said. ”They asked me how they will save face in front of the people if that was the case.”

He called on the DRP MPs to take the issue to the Supreme Court if they were confident on the matter.

”If the Supreme Court rules it is unconstitutional we will also be supporting DRP MPs,” he said.

DRP MP Ahmed Mahloof said the purpose of MDP presenting the resolution was to mislead the people.

‘The ‘DRP manifesto do not say it the party will divide the country into provinces,” he said, ”it says it would make four cities like Male’.”

Jumhooree Party MP Gasim ‘Buruma’ Ibrahim said it was not necessary to pass the resolution and take it to the Supreme Court.

”We should take this out of the parliament floor and continue our work making laws,” he said.

DRP MP Ahmed Nihan said that before taking the issue to the Supreme Court people should define the meaning of MDP’s pledges they made to the people.

”They pledged to provide houses for people made homeless by the Tsunami within one year,” he said. ”We should ask them what they meant by ‘one year’ and ‘providing houses’.”

MDP Parliamentary group leader Moosa ‘Reeko’ Manik recently said that the MDP parliamentary group would put forward a no-confidence motion against the speaker of the parliament.

However, newspaper ‘Miadhu’ reported that DRP MP Rozaina Adam had claimed there were MDP MPs who would not vote for the no-confidence motion.

Rozaina told Minivan News that she did not wish to speak about the matter.

Reeko said that the parliamentary group would be deciding the matter after the decentralisation bill.

”We do not want to speak about it yet,” he said.

MDP Secretary General Ahmed Shah, Spokesperson Ahmed Haleem and Chairperson Mariya Didi did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

DRP Vice President Umar Naseer said Reeko had promised to draft the no-confidence motion against the speaker not with the intention of doing it, ”but just to charge their activists.”

MDP can only get 27 votes even if the no-confidence motion was forwarded, he said: ”MDP can’t shoot goals in parliament.”

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Police arrests the man who led the Mukurimagu riot

Police have arrested the man who allegedly led the attacks on police and damaged public property on 17 April in Laamu Atoll Gan.

Police identified the man as Ahmed Wajeeh, 30, of Beysge, Laamu Gan Mathimaradhu.

Police reported that there were 25 people arrested in connection with the case including four children under the age of 18 and one woman.

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President Nasheed departs to Bhutan for SAARC summit

President Mohamed Nasheed and First Lady Laila Ali departed on an official visit to Bhutan yesterday morning to attend the 16th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit.

The Summit of Heads of State and Heads of the Government of SAARC countries will be held in Thimphu, Bhutan on 28 and 29 April.

President Nasheed will also meet other SAARC country leaders to discuss bilateral relations and issues of regional interest.

Before his departure at the official jetty, President Nasheed said SAARC needed to play a more active role in addressing regional issues. He added he would work with other leaders of SAARC to strengthen and expand the role of the organisation in the region.

After their visit to Bhutan, the president and first lady will be going to China on an official visit start 1 May.

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Police arrest a man with suspected drugs in uninhabited island

Police yesterday arrested a man with large amount of suspected drugs in Lonadhuvahutta in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, reports police.

Police said the man was arrested with 18 pieces and 10 packets of alleged drugs.

The man was 23 years old and he was arrested last night at 23:30pm.

Gaafu Dhaalu Thinadhoo police station and the police drug enforcement unit and investigating the case.

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Licenses of false scholars will be revoked, warns Islamic Ministry

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has claimed it will be taking action against religious scholars who spread ‘false information’ about Islam, in a bid to tackle rising concerns over fundamentalism in the country.

State Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said this action would extend to revoking the licenses of these scholars once the requisite regulation in the Religious Unity Act was returned from the Attorney General’s office this week.

“We will investigate these matters and in the future an advisory board will be appointed to make these decisions,” Shaheem explained.

The first scholar to likely have his license cancelled under the new regulations will be Sheikh Nasrulla, Shaheem said, after the Islamic Ministry received complaints about the Sheikh from the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM).

In a letter to the ministry dated last October, HRCM reported that during a Ramadan sermon to teachers in Gaafu Alifu Villingili, Sheikh Nasrulla encouraged people “to get their daughters married when they are nine years old.”

“We have information that he said ‘my daughter was also married when she was 9 years old’,” HRCM said in the letter, stating that this practice conflicted with human rights.

The commission also noted that “while it is not prohibited to get married at such a young age in Islam, when scholars speak and spread information like this, children’s studies are ruined and they are forced to marry when they are psychologically and physically unprepared for it.”

“We respectfully request [the Islamic Ministry] stop these acts as it confuses people about the Islamic religion and brings intense hatred towards it.”

President of HRCM Ahmed Saleem said today that the Islamic Ministry’s decision to take concrete action against scholars preaching such practices was “very encouraging.”

“I think the ministry has been quietly trying to do things in the background, but it hasn’t been working and they seem to have decided to go public,” Saleem said. “A lot of people have been shifting blame on the Ministry.”

HRCM sent the letter to the Islamic Ministry last year following complaints from the community that young girls were being married, and asked the ministry to investigate the matter.

“I don’t think Nasrulla is the only one preaching it; just taking action against Nasrulla is not enough,” Saleem said.

He agreed that there was “to some extent” conflict between human rights and certain interpretations of Islam present in the Maldives.

“My sense is that people understand human rights as a western concept, but that is not the case,” Saleem said.

“If you talk to some scholars human rights is very much part of Islam – Islam itself preaches human rights.”

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Vice President voices concerns about government at GIP rally

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed once again spoke out publicly against the government at a Gaumee Itthihaad Party (GIP) rally on Saturday, where he reiterated his opinion that the government’s coalition platform, which won them the 2008 presidential elections, is not being put into practice.

Dr Waheed appeared on the new VTV programme Hoonu Gondi (Hot Seat) earlier this month, where he voiced his concerns that the government was not employing the multi-party system they based their 2008 campaign on. He also said President Mohamed Nasheed did not consult with him enough, and he did not want to be a Vice President who “slept for five years.”

The vice president told Minivan News at the time he was “not completely satisfied” with his job and felt it was time for him to speak out without being afraid. “It’s my responsibility to express my feelings,” he said.

At Saturday’s GIP rally, the vice president once again spoke out against Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) members who were acting as though MDP was the only party in the government, and said the Maldives would soon be “colour coded.”

According to reports, toward the end of the rally more than half the audience walked out in protest when Deputy Minister for Economic Development and GIP member, Ahmed Inaz, spoke of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Press Secretary for the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair, reiterated Dr Waheed was speaking as the head of a political party and not as the vice president at Saturday’s rally.

“I believe he has identified a need to strengthen his own party. New political party regulations require a party to have 3000 members, otherwise the party will be dissolved,” he said.

Zuhair added “another factor may be the local government elections in June, and he feels he needs to be seen as active. All this has nothing to do with the government.”

He noted the president and vice president “get on well at the office” and everything is running normally.

Zuhair said Dr Waheed’s comments on “colour coding” were taken out of context by the media. “I don’t believe this is correct,” he said. “The government does not favour any one party, which I believe is a compliment to the government.”

He said “the vice president accepted the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) manifesto. He is raising these problems with the government but he is part of it, so perhaps he should be more proactive in solving them.”

Zuhair added the opposition would surely try to use this to drive a wedge into the government, saying “it’s already happening.”

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Spokesperson Ibrahim Shareef said he believes there have been “some misunderstandings between the president and vice president.”

He said he doesn’t see anything wrong with the vice president making his comments public, as he “wasn’t criticising the government.”

Shareef said many people, both in the government and general population, were “blowing it out of proportion” making many people think there is disunity in the government.

He added Dr Waheed was asked difficult questions, and “I believe the vice president has answered correctly. Everybody knows it to be the truth.”

He said the government’s problem was they were “trying to change things for the sake of change” and had “so far failed to deliver anything concrete.”

Shareef said “people’s lives are becoming very difficult”, especially for those in the civil service, and noted that even if the government could not deliver on anything concrete, people were still expecting it from them.

“It’s only been a year and a half,” he said, “but some decisions are very hasty and not thought out properly.”

Spokesperson for MDP Ahmed Haleem said he thought the vice president “wants to get more sheets for the local elections [to be held in June]” and “wants to show he is still alive.”

“Seventy-five percent of the people reject this vice president,” Haleem said, adding the Vice President’s recent comments were not injuring the image of the government or the MDP, but were injuring Dr Waheed himself.

Haleem said there is “no more coalition” in the government, since most parties withdrew from the coalition. But noted the GIP was “very supportive of us” and are supportive of democracy, too.

According to GIP’s website, the party joined the MDP to “create a platform for those individuals who wish to present new ideas, who value honest leadership that cares about the Maldivian people.”

The GIP promises to “bring new ideas on health care, education, housing and other development to better improve our country and give our citizens something we’ve never had – a truly representational government.”

As of last week, the GIP has 3,508 members according to the Elections Commission.

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Cases filed with ACC against councilor who led funeral prayers

A man in Thaa Atoll Dhiyamigili has filed a case with the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) against the island councilor Adnan Ali, for reportedly leading a funeral prayer.

An official at the Island Office confirmed an islander had filed two cases against the councilor. The funeral prayer was a Salaat-ul-Janazah bil Ghaib [Funeral Prayer in the absence of the dead body] which is disputed among the scholars.

An official at the island office told Minivan News that the councilor was not certified to lead the funeral prayer.

”Funeral prayers are always led by the Imam or island chiefs who are certified by the Islamic Ministry,” he said. ”I swear the councilor does not even know how to read and write Arabic well.”

He said the councilor led two funeral prayers for a pair of men who died in India.

”One of the men was a man of our Island and the other man was his friend from another island,” the official said. ”There were two island chiefs and an imam present on the island when he did that.”

He said that it would have been fine if all the certified people on the island were not present.

”The Islamic Ministry has said that it was all right for anyone to lead the funeral prayers,” he said. ”But why did they renew all the certificates of all the imams and island chiefs when they came to power and permitted only to certified people to do the Friday prayers? Why don’t they leave it for anyone to do?”

He said the man who filed the case called the ACC last week, who said they would be responding to him shortly.

Adnan Ali had recently ordered the island chief to stay at home while the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has claimed that councilors and ministers can’t take any action against civil servants.

Island councilor Adnan Ali told Minivan News that ”whether I did [lead the prayers] or not, I would not have to tell you,” adding that he did not wish to be advertised to everyone.

State minister for Islam Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said that there was no certain regulation on the matter.

”If no certified person is available it is all right for anyone to do [lead funeral prayers],” Shaheem said. ”We have sent new rules and regulations to the Attorney General, which will include such issues.”

He said that scholars dispute the funeral prayer in the absence of the dead body.

”On both the sides they take the same incidence, the story of Najashi (the King of Ethiopia),” he said.

The ACC’s Vice President Muaaviz Rasheed and Director Umar Rasheed did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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Maldivian scientist recognised for achievements in digital knowledge transfer

Maldivian Scientist Professor Hassan Ugail at University of Bradford in the UK has received the ‘Excellence in Knowledge Transfer Award’ for developing cutting-edge methods of defining and manipulating complex digital data.

Professor Hassan Ugail is the Chair of Visual Computing at the University, and has developed research ideas into a business in the UK and potentially into Europe and USA.

His two patents have led to his development spin-out company, Tangentix Ltd, which is currently developing technology for digital distribution of computer game content.

Tangentix is already growing rapidly in the region is predicted to grow rapidly over the next few months and create a significant number of new jobs.

The other shortlisted candidates for the award included Dr P B Anant, Reader in Development and Economic Studies, Professor Andrew Day, Automotive, Modelling and Optimisation Research Group Leader, School of Engineering, Design and Technology, Paul Edwards, Head of training and Practice Development, Dementia Studies, Dr. Qun Shao, China Programme Manager, Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation.

Secretary General for Maldives Science Society and founding member Ajmal Shaheed said the award received by Professor Ugail was “very valuable.”

Ajmal said that the science society and all the people of Maldives should be “very proud” that a Maldivian has received the most prestigious award.

”His achievement will would encourage those Maldivians who work in the field of science,” Ajmal said. ”Scientists are very few in our nation.”

He said Professor Ugail had done much work that had been recognised worldwide.

”He has designed a space shuttle for NASA, and he is trying to develop a facial recognition system, ” Ajmal said. ”We hope this will encourage Maldivian scientists to work in the research science field.”

He said most of the scientists in the Maldives were marine biologists, and that the number of scientists working in research fields was very few.

He said the MSS was discussing how to recognise Professor Ugail for “the beautiful name he has brought the country.”

Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair said the government congratulated Professor Hassan Ugail for the success he had achieved.

”President Mohamed Nasheed also describes it as a very happy news for the country,” Zuhair said.

Zuhair said that the success of Hassan Ugail showed that Maldivians could achieve international awards if chose to go forward in the field of science.

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